THE US OPEN NINE-BALL CHAMPIONSHIP: GETTING TO THE CORE OF MODERN POOL

There are many great events for pool in the United States at both the amateur and professional level. There are many regional, national, and world championship events held in the US that have historical significance. The big three in my eyes are The Derby City Classic, The International Open, and The US Open. The size of the fields, the talent level, and the impact that they all have on American cue sports are mainly why I chose them.

Among the Big Three, The US Open is the longest-running active tournament in the US, and looking at its history is like studying an ice core. Year by year, layer by layer, we can see the changes and growth of pool.

Starting with less than 20 players in its first year, it now regularly fields 256 players with a waiting list. American players dominated the event, similar to how they dominated the Mosconi Cup in its early years. Sigel, Hall, Strickland, Varner, and Mizerak were familiar names to see in the finals. Mike LeBron was the first non-US-born player to win it, taking the title in 1986. Just eight years later, in 1994, we see the so-called “Filipino Invasion” wave hitting a big crest with Efren Reyes winning. Reyes would make three more final appearances, making way for players like Jose Parica, Alex Pagulayan, Rodolfo Luat, Ronnie Alcano, Dennis Orcullo, and Carlo Biado to find themselves in the finals. Takeshi Okumura, a standout player from

Japan, made the finals in 2000, and Ralf Souquet of Germany was a winner in 2002, with Thorsten Hohmann quickly following in 2004 to make the finals and taking the runner-up spot.

In 2005, we saw the first allFilipino final, and in 2009, we saw our first all-European final. Since then, only Corey Deuel, Shawn Putnam, and Shane Van Boening have reached the finals, and only Shane has seen the winner’s circle, winning four times to bring his total to 5, tying the legendary Earl Strickland. We regularly see European and Asian players in the finals. Kevin Cheng and Karl Boyes met in 2015, and Joshua Filler and Wu Jiaqing clashed in 2019. No American player has made the finals since SVB’s last win in 2016.

I think it is generally agreed that pool in the US has fallen as Asia and European players now dominate most major events. This is directly reflected in looking at the history of the US Open. It’s not that you can’t find other examples to track; it’s just that I think the US Open offers the best dataset overall, with its long history.

The US Open has also been a showcase for things like Corey Deuel throwing the first and only shutout in the finals in 2001. Part of Corey’s dominance eventually led to new rules regarding the soft break. We’ve seen dark horse winners like Gabe Owen and John Schmidt. We’ve seen legends built with Earl Strickland beating players like Sigel, Rempe, Reyes, Ellin, and Omura and eventually winning five titles, the first of two to reach that number.

The US Open changed hands from the longstanding founder Barry Behrman to his children in 2016, who ran with the help of Pat Fleming, and finally to Matchroom in 2018, who have taken pool further in the last five years than anyone else has in the last twenty-five. The fields are growing to match World Championship levels, and they are now being mirrored in events all over the world. Another thing to come out of the sale of the US Open to Matchroom was Pat Fleming creating the International Open, which has become just as big and almost as prestigious.

Matchroom has added more new events like the UK Open and the Spanish Open as well as the Peri Open and the Asian Open Championship. They have events like the World Cup of Pool, the Premier Pool League, and the World Pool Masters. The crown jewel event in terms of hype and presentation is, of course, the Mosconi Cup.

In recent years, though, the US has begun to increase training and events for its junior players, like the JIC Tour and the BEF event, to send our young players to the Junior World Championship. From these, we are starting to see some positive results in the rise of our younger talent. We have some distance to go, but we are taking steps in the right direction. Matchroom is also running junior events parallel to their major events, which gives young players even more opportunities. This also means that we cannot rest when we see a little bit of success. It means that our players must work even harder, and we need to support them even better. Do not rest on your laurels. Do not coast on your talent. Do not underestimate your opponents.

Learn from the Past. Live in the Present. Look to the Future.

Right now, the future looks bright, and if we stay in the moment and don’t repeat the doomed decisions of the past, I think in a few more years, it will have evolved well beyond what anyone could have imagined way back in 1976. Who knows what we will see in the next core sample, say, fifty years from now? It might be something epic.